Intro to AP

To many first-time AP students, the impression is made that the class will be conducted like former honors or accelerated courses. However, this is not the case. AP courses are handled in a very similar way to college courses because, for all intents and purposes, AP means that is IS a freshman college course. Even though some high-school rules apply, the overall goal of AP is to introduce the student to a collegic environment to challenge their academic maturity and growth.
Speaking as a student who was thrown into the AP environment without any warning of the fast-paced, sink-or-swim attitude, AP was a lot more challenging than what I had previously thought. Because of my lackadaisical approach, I quickly fell behind and spent most of the first semester getting adjusted. Yet, by second semester, the atmosphere of AP was very academically stimulating and even, dare I say, fun. Being a first-time AP student, it took quite a bit of growth in academic maturity on my part to keep up with all the work.
Unlike honors or accelerated classes, most AP teachers don't enforce, or remind students of nightly reading, note-taking, or any of the like. Like college, they require the student to have th amturity to do the work on their own. If a student doesn't enter an AP class without that in mind, it can be very hard to catch up AND stay on top of the academic challenge. Ap classes, however, are not all incredibly terrifying, nor do they have exorbanant amounts of homework every night. Yet, to a first-time AP student, the work can seem to be unbearable. As a survivor of at least one AP course, I can say that if a student stays prepared, and keeps up with the expectations of AP, their experience will defenitely be positively impacted.